The Long Island Rail Road (reporting markLI), legally known as the Long Island Rail Road Company and often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in southeastern New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With over 334,000 daily passengers, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the few commuter systems in the world that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round.[1] It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as MTA Long Island Rail Road. The current LIRR logo combines the circular MTA logo with the text Long Island Rail Road, and appears on the sides of trains. The LIRR is one of two commuter rail systems owned by the MTA, the other being Metro-North Railroad. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest U.S. railroad still operating under its original name and charter.[2]

There are 124 stations, and more than 700 miles (1,100 km) of track,[3] on its two lines to the two forks of the island and eight major branches, with the passenger railroad system totaling 319 miles (513 km) of route.[4]

The LIRR is the only commuter passenger railroad in the United States to operate 24/7 with significant off peak, weekend, and holiday service.

The Long Island Rail Road Company was chartered in 1834 to provide a daily service between New York and Boston via a ferry connection between its Greenport, New York, terminal on Long Island's North Fork and Stonington, Connecticut. This service was superseded in 1849 by the land route through Connecticut that became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The LIRR refocused its attentions towards serving Long Island, in competition with other railroads on the island. In the 1870s railroad president Conrad Poppenhusen and his successor Austin Corbin acquired all the railroads and consolidated them into the LIRR.[5]

The LIRR was unprofitable for much of its history. In 1900, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) bought a controlling interest as part of its plan for direct access to Manhattan which began on September 8, 1910. The wealthy PRR subsidized the LIRR during the first half of the new century, allowing expansion and modernization.[2]

After the Second World War the downturn in the railroad industry and dwindling profits caused the PRR to stop subsidizing the LIRR, and the LIRR went into receivership in 1949. The State of New York, realizing how important the railroad was to the future of Long Island, began to subsidize the railroad in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, New York State bought the railroad's controlling stock from the PRR and put it under the newly formed Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (renamed Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1968). With MTA subsidies the LIRR modernized further, continuing to be the busiest commuter railroad in the United States.[2]

The LIRR is one of the few railroads that has survived as an intact company from its original charter to the present day.[2]

The LIRR operates out of three western terminals, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Jamaica Station in central Queens is the hub of all railroad activities. Expansion of the system into Grand Central Terminal is anticipated over the next few years. Major stations include:

Access to a fourth major terminal is currently under construction. As early as 2019, the LIRR intends to start service to Grand Central Terminal via the East Side Access; provision was made for this route on the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River, which carries the New York City Subway's IND 63rd Street Line (F train) on its upper level. The East Side Access project will reduce congestion while increasing the number of trains during peak hours. However, some February 2014 estimates push the opening date as far back as September 2024.[8][9][10]

The Long Island Rail Road system is made up of eleven passenger branches. Three main trunk lines, the Main Line, Montauk Branch, and Atlantic Branch, spin off eight smaller branches. For scheduling and advertising purposes some of these branches are further divided into sections such as the case with the Montauk Branch, which is known as the Babylon Branch service in the electrified portion of the line between Jamaica and Babylon, while the diesel service beyond Babylon to Montauk is referred to as the Montauk Branch service. All branches except the Port Washington Branch pass through Jamaica; the trackage west of Jamaica (except to Port Washington) is known as the City Terminal Zone. The City Terminal Zone includes portions of the Main Line and Atlantic and Montauk Branches as well as the Amtrak-owned East River Tunnels to Penn Station. The passenger lines are:

The Montauk Branch runs from Long Island City to Montauk, meeting the Main Line at Long Island City and Jamaica. It is electrified from Jamaica east to Babylon; only diesel trains use the "Lower Montauk" section west of Jamaica or the outer section east of Babylon. Only trains east of Babylon are considered part of the Montauk Branch service; the line from Lynbrook to Babylon carries Babylon Branch trains.

The electrified West Hempstead Branch branches from the Montauk Branch at Valley Stream and runs northeast to West Hempstead, originally continuing to junction the Hempstead Branch and the Oyster Bay Branch at the Main Line. As of November 22, 2014 weekend service on the branch has been restored.[12]

The diesel-only Central Branch runs southeast from the Main Line at Bethpage to the Montauk Branch at Babylon, giving an alternate route to the Montauk Branch east of Babylon. The Central Branch used to continue west from Bethpage to include what is now the Garden City–Mitchel Field Secondary.

The Central Extension ran from Garden City eastward to Central Park (3/4 mile south of current Bethpage station) and as far east as Bethpage Junction. The line was cut back to the point where it stopped at Island Trees. Today the western part of track still in use for freight and storage, and is officially known today as the Garden City Secondary.

The Flushing Branch, also known as the Flushing Village Railroad was a short spur southeast from the Port Washington Branch in Flushing. It began at Great Neck Junction along with the CRRLI, then broke away at College Point Boulevard, and terminated between Murray Hill and Broadway stations.[14]

The Roosevelt Field Spur branched off northward from the current Garden City Secondary just north of Commercial Avenue. From there, it crossed Stewart Avenue just west of present-day South Street before turning slightly northeast, crossing over the Meadowbrook Parkway, where the overpass can still be seen today. From there, it continued north before curving east and coming to an end near Zeckendorf Boulevard. The line was used for freight only.[18]

In addition to its daily commuter patronage, the LIRR also offers the following services:

From April to October, the railroad adds stops at Mets – Willets Point station to trains on the Port Washington Branch to serve passengers traveling to see the New York Mets home games and the US Open (tennis). When the number of passengers requires it, additional trains may be added also.[21]

The railroad also operates extra trains during the summer season that cater to the Long Island beach trade. Special package ticket deals are offered to places like Long Beach, Jones Beach, the Hamptons, Montauk, and Greenport. Some of these packages require bus and ferry connections.

From May through October, the railroad runs four daily trains to Belmont Park (two in each direction) during the racetrack's summer meets. Additionally, on the day of the Belmont Stakes horse race, the railroad runs extra trains to accommodate the large amount of spectators attending the event.[22]

Like Metro-North Railroad and New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Rail Road fare system is based on the distance a passenger travels, as opposed to the New York City Subway, which has a flat rate throughout the system. The railroad is broken up into eight numbered fare zones. Zone 1 includes all of the City Terminal Zone.[24] Zone 3 includes Jamaica and all stations east of Jamaica within the boundaries of New York City, except Far Rockaway and Belmont Park.[25] Zones 4 and 7 include all the stations in Nassau County and Far Rockaway.[25] Zones 9, 10, 12, and 14 includes all the stations in Suffolk County.[25] Each zone contains many stations, and the same fare applies for travel between any station in the origin zone and any station in the destination zone.[25]

Peak fares are charged during the week on trains that arrive at western terminals between 6 AM and 10 AM, and for trains that depart from western terminals between 4 PM and 8 PM.[26] Any passenger holding an off peak ticket on a peak train is required to pay a step up fee.[27] Passengers can buy tickets from ticket agents or ticket vending machines (TVMs) or on the train from conductors, but will incur an on-board penalty fee for doing so.[27] This fee is waived for customers boarding at a station without a ticket office or ticket machine, senior citizens, people with disabilities or Medicare customers.[27]

There are several types of tickets: one way, round trip, peak, off-peak, AM peak or off-peak senior/citizen disabled, peak child, and off-peak child. On off-peak trains, passengers can buy a family ticket for children who are accompanied by an 18-year-old for $0.75 if bought from the station agent or TVM, $1.00 on the train. Senior citizen/disabled passengers traveling during the morning peak hours are required to pay the AM peak senior citizen/disabled rate. This rate is not charged during PM peak hours.

Commuters can also buy a peak or off-peak ten trip ride, a weekly unlimited or an unlimited monthly pass.[28] Monthly passes are good on any train regardless of the time of day, within the fare zones specified on the pass.[28]

On weekends, the railroad offers a special reduced-fare CityTicket, introduced in 2004,[29] for passengers who travel within Zones 1 and 3 (i.e. within New York City). CityTickets can only be bought from ticket agents or machines and used on the day of purchase.[30] They are not valid for travel to Far Rockaway because it is in Zone 4 and the Far Rockaway Branch passes through Nassau County.[30] It is also not valid for travel to the Belmont Park station, which is only open for special events.[30] All passengers going to Belmont Park must buy a special ticket to go from Jamaica to Belmont Park (or vice versa), as weekly and monthly passes are not accepted at Belmont Park.[30]

During the summer the railroad offers special summer package ticket deals to places such as Long Beach, Jones Beach, the Hamptons, Montauk, and Greenport. Passengers traveling to the Hamptons and Montauk on the Cannonball can reserve a seat in the all-reserved Parlor Cars.

All movements on the LIRR are under the control of the Movement Bureau in Jamaica, which gives orders to the towers that control a specific portion of the railroad. Movements in Amtrak territory are controlled by Penn Station Control Center or PSCC, run jointly by the LIRR and Amtrak. The PSCC controls as far east as Harold interlocking, in the Sunnyside area of Queens. The PSCC replaced several towers. The Jamaica Control Center (new in the third quarter of 2010) controls from there east through the Jamaica terminal by direct control of interlockings. This replaced several towers in Jamaica including Jay and Hall towers at the west and east ends of Jamaica station respectively. East of there, lineside towers control the various switches and signals under the direction of the dispatchers in Jamaica.[34]

Nearly all the lines and all passenger rolling stock is equipped for cab signalling, which displays the block signal governing movement of trains in the cab. All passenger rolling stock is equipped with Automatic Speed Control (ASC), which enforces the speed limit dictated by the cab signal if the engineer fails to comply with it, by a penalty brake application. This feature greatly enhances safety.

On many of the lines, there are no intermediate wayside signals between the interlockings: operation is solely by cab signal. Wayside signals remain at interlockings.

The LIRR's electric fleet consists of 836 M7 and 170 M3electric multiple unit cars in married pairs, meaning each car needs the other one to operate, with each car containing its own engineer's cab. The trainsets typically range up to 12 cars long. In September 2013, MTA announced that the LIRR would procure new M9 railcars from Kawasaki starting in 2016.[36] They will replace the M3s, and expand the railroad's electric fleet.

For most of its history LIRR has served commuters, but it had many named trains, some with all-first class seating, parlor cars, and full bar service. Few of them lasted past World War II, but some names were revived during the 1950s and 1960s as the railroad expanded its east end parlor car service with luxury coaches and Pullman cars from railroads that were discontinuing their passenger trains.

The Cannonball, a Friday-only 12-car train to Montauk running May through October, with two all-reserved parlor cars with full bar service. Since May 24, 2013 it has originated at Penn Station with a Sunday evening return from Montauk; only the westward train stops at Jamaica. The two rear cars ("Hamptons Reserve Service") have reserved seating and exclusive bar service.[38] The name is a nod to the Cannon Ball, the all-year train to Amagansett/Montauk from the 1890s until the 1970s. It carried parlor cars and standard-fare coaches and ran weekday afternoons from Long Island City, then from Penn Station until 1951.[39]

Fisherman's Special (1932–1950s) from Long Island City to Canoe Place Station and Montauk via Jamaica, April through October, terminating at Canoe Place in April, extended to Montauk in May. Served Long Island fishing trade.[40]

Peconic Bay Express / Shinnecock Bay Express (1926–1950) from Long Island City to Greenport and Montauk, Saturday only, express to Greenport and Montauk. Discontinued during World War II though revived for a few seasons afterwards.[39]

Shelter Island Express (1901–1903, 1923–1942) from Long Island City to Greenport, Friday-only summer express that connected to Shelter Island ferries.

Sunrise Special (1922–1942) ran during the summer, NY Penn to Montauk on Fridays and westbound Mondays. In summer 1926 it ran daily. All parlor car (no coaches) from 1932 to 1937.[31][32][41][42][43]

The LIRR and other railroads that became part of the system have always had freight service, though this has diminished. The process of shedding freight service accelerated with the acquisition of the railroad by New York State.

In recent years there has been some appreciation of the need for better railroad freight service in New York City and on Long Island. Both areas are primarily served by trucking for freight haulage, an irony in a region with the most extensive rail transit service in the Americas as well as the worst traffic conditions. Proposals for a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel for freight have languished more than a century.

In May 1997, freight service was franchised on a 20-year term to the New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR), a short line railroad owned by the Anacostia and Pacific Company.[44] It has its own equipment and crews, but uses the rail facilities of the LIRR. To the east, freight service operates to the end of the West Hempstead Branch, to Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch, to Bridgehampton on the Montauk Branch, and to Riverhead on the Main Line. On the western end it provides service on the surviving freight-only tracks of the LIRR: the Bay Ridge and Bushwick branches; the "Lower Montauk" between Jamaica and Long Island City; and to an interchange connection at Fresh Pond Junction in Queens with the CSX, Canadian Pacific, and Providence and Worcester railroads.

The Garden City-Mitchel Field Secondary is a short remnant of the Central Branch that splits from the Hempstead Branch at Garden City, running to Uniondale near Hofstra University and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This branch does not host any NYAR service. This branch is used by the Ringling Bros. Circus to transport animals, staff and equipment to the Nassau Coliseum.[23]

In 2019, the LIRR expects to complete a project to add a second track along its Main Line between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma to relieve crowding.[45] Currently, there is only double track from Bethpage to the site of the former Republic Station (east of Farmingdale), and again from Deer Park to Brentwood. Passing sidings exist east of Wyandanch, and at Central Islip.

In 2023, the LIRR expects to complete the long-anticipated East Side Access project, allowing trains to access Grand Central Terminal.

The Third Main Line Track and electrification expansions that were planned in conjunction with the commencement of service to Grand Central Terminal were placed on hold in 2008[46] since local politicians in the affected areas, between Floral Park and Hicksville, were opposed to the plan and expressed concerns about the effects of the construction and train noise from eventual increase in service. The third track on the Main Line would aid in relieving the crowding on the Main Line which is expected to grow after the East Side Access project is complete. It also includes the elimination of several grade crossings.

The LIRR has a long history of rocky relations with its passengers,[47] especially daily commuters.[48] Various commuter advocacy groups have been formed to try to represent those interests, in addition to the state mandated LIRR Commuters Council.[49]

One criticism of the LIRR is that it has not improved service to the "east end" of Long Island as the twin forks continue to grow in popularity as a year round tourist and residential destination. Demand is evidenced by flourishing for-profit bus services such as the Hampton Jitney and the Hampton Luxury Liner and the early formative stages of a new East End Transportation Authority.[50] Local politicians have joined the public outcry for the LIRR to either improve the frequency of east end services, or turn the operation over to a local transportation authority.

Critics claim that the on-time performance (OTP) calculated by the LIRR is manipulated to be artificially high. Because the LIRR does not release any raw timing data nor does it have independent (non-MTA) audits it is impossible to verify this claim, or the accuracy of the current On Time Performance measurement. The "percentage" measure is used by many other US passenger railroads but the criticism over accuracy is specific to the LIRR. As defined by the LIRR, a train is "on time" if it arrives at a station within 5 minutes and 59 seconds of the scheduled time.[51] The criterion was 4 minutes and 59 seconds until the LIRR changed it because of a bug in their computer systems.[52] Critics[53] believe the OTP measure does not reflect what commuters experience on a daily basis. The LIRR publishes the current OTP in a monthly booklet called TrainTalk.[54] TrainTalk was previously known as "Keeping Track."

A more accurate way to measure delays and OTP has been proposed.[55] Called the "Passenger Hours Delayed" index it can measure total person-hours of a specific delay. This would be useful in comparing performance of specific days or incidents, day-to-day (or week-to-week) periods, something the current measure cannot do. This 'PHD' index measure is used by some transportation research organizations and would be more meaningful to commuters. As of May 2015[update] it has not been adopted. The two methods are not mutually exclusive and could be kept and published simultaneously.

2007 ridership was 86.1 million, up 4.9% over 2006. The all time highest ridership was in 1929, when 119 million passengers rode 1.89 billion passenger miles.[56]

A New York Times investigation in 2008 showed that 25% of LIRR employees who had retired since 2000 filed for disability payments from the federal Railroad Retirement Board and 97% of them were approved to receive disability pension. The total collected was more than $250,000,000 over eight years.[57] As a result, Railroad Retirement agents from Chicago inspected the Long Island office of the Railroad Retirement Board on September 23, 2008. New York GovernorDavid Paterson issued a statement calling for Congress to conduct a full review of the board's mission and daily activities. Officials at the board's headquarters responded to the investigation stating that all occupational disability annuities were issued in accordance with applicable laws.[57]

On November 17, 2008, a former LIRR pension manager was arrested and charged with official misconduct for performing outside work without permission. However, these charges were all dismissed for "no merit" by Supreme Court Judge Kase on December 11, 2009 on the grounds that the prosecution had misled the grand jury in the indictment.[58]

A report produced in September 2009 by the Government Accountability Office stated that the rate at which retirees were rewarded disability claims was above the norm for the industry in general and indicated "troubling" practices that may indicate fraud, such as the use of a very small group of physicians in making the diagnosis.[59]

Another series of arrests on October 27, 2011 included two doctors and a former union official.[60][61]

According to court documents, from 1998 through 2011, 79% of LIRR retirees obtained federal disability when they retired. On August 6, 2013, a doctor and two consultants were found guilty in connection with the accusations and sentenced to prison.[62][63][64]